E.J. McMahon

Founding Senior Fellow

Edmund J. McMahon was the Empire Center’s founding senior fellow.

McMahon’s writing and research has focused on improving New York’s economic competitiveness and promoting greater transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility in state and local government. He has authored or co-authored major studies on public pension reform, collective bargaining, population migration, budget trends and tax policy in New York. His influential “Blueprint for a Better Budget,” published in January 2010, featured a number of recommendations subsequently implemented under Governors David Paterson and Andrew Cuomo. McMahon also was a leading advocate of an across-the-board cap on property taxes in New York before it was enacted at Governor Cuomo’s initiative in 2011.

McMahon has published numerous articles and essays in publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, the Public Interest, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Newsday and the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. His frequent radio and TV interviews have included appearances on CNBC, Fox News Channel and Bloomberg News, as well as on regional cable and broadcast outlets throughout New York State.

McMahon’s professional background includes nearly 30 years as an Albany-based analyst and close observer of New York State government. As chief fiscal advisor to the Assembly Republican Conference in the early 1990s, he drafted a personal income tax reform plan that would become the basis for historic tax cuts enacted under Governor George E. Pataki. Previously, as research director of the Public Policy Institute, he worked on the Institute’s counter-budget proposals and developed the template for New York’s school report cards. He also served as a deputy commissioner in the state Department of Taxation and Finance and as a vice chancellor of the State University of New York.

McMahon is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which he joined in June 2000. In January 2005, he opened the Institute’s Albany-based Empire Center project, which became an independent nonprofit think tank in 2013. He was the Empire Center’s founding president and became research director in the fall of 2016.

Earlier in his career, he was a staff writer and columnist for the Albany Times Union and The Knickerbocker News.

McMahon is a graduate of Villanova University.

Latest Work

Big Apple’s Bite

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • New York Post
  • November 19, 2007
  • Commentary

As teammates on the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez get to perform on a stage suited to their outsized talents. But Jeter's dispute with state tax officials highlights the price such stars must pay to strut their stuff in Gotham. Read More

A Question for Hillary

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • Wall Street Journal
  • January 5, 2008
  • Commentary

Sen. Hillary Clinton is running for president, in part, on a platform that calls for more government health care. So let's ask a question that may hit a little too close to home: Why does New York spend more on Medicaid—a health-care program for the poor—than every other state but still have a larger portion of its population walking around without health insurance than states that spend far less? Read More

Eliot’s Excellent Idea

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • New York Post
  • January 10, 2008
  • Commentary

Gov. Spitzer's second annual State of the State message yesterday featured what may ultimately stand out as his Nixon-goes-to-China moment. Annoying a powerful ally - and embracing a concept he had rejected during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign - Spitzer said he would form a special commission to recommend a "fair and effective cap" on school taxes in New York. Read More

Paterson’s Challenges: Economic Woes

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • New York Post
  • March 13, 2008
  • Commentary

When Eliot Spitzer's entanglement with a high-priced prostitution ring was first revealed Monday afternoon, stock indexes were getting pummeled in the latest manifestation of credit market turmoil. On Tuesday, as the market was enjoying a Fed-induced bounce, The Wall Street Journal reported that "big, painful firings are coming" at investment banks - with as many as 40,000 New York-based jobs potentially on the chopping block. Read More

After The Spitzer Storm

  • by E.J. McMahon
  • Wall Street Journal
  • March 15, 2008
  • Commentary

In the long and storied political history of New York State, few things were ever as inevitable as Eliot Spitzer's election to the governor's office. As state attorney general, he already loomed as governor-presumptive before the Republican incumbent, Gov. George Pataki, confirmed in the summer of 2005 that he would not seek a fourth term. Read More